Please tell me what Baby Reindeer is all about (spoilers ok, I won't watch it)

[MaggieFS]

It's impossible to avoid hearing about it, but I have no plans to watch it.

Could someone please give me a synopsis rather than just the snippets one hears to try and encourage one to watch it?

I'm watching it now and loving it! The actress who plays the deranged Martha is bloody fantastic!

The story, dramatised or not is unusual and interesting. I quite like the fact that they male lead is a crap comedian and that it deals with male rape, trauma and has a trans romance. It is not the usual old boring tropes one sees on television.

It's raw, dark and brilliant. But yes, the media hype has been totally OTT - reminds me of the whole hoo hah around Fleabag, when that came out. There's a side of me that always yawns inside when everyone is proclaiming it's the best thing written since Shakespeare (until next year's fad).

Just finished watching it today. I liked it because all the characters had so much nuance, because it was well-acted, and because it dealt with the complicated feelings people can have towards people who’ve abused them. I also found it interesting because there aren’t very many mainstream stories about bisexual men.

It has elements of a crime thriller, a character study, and, at times, a dark comedy. Each episode leaves you enormously curious about what’s going to happen next.

@skeettch and @FedUpAndTiredToday nope, it bypassed me completely 🙈🤷🏼‍♀️ But in my defence, I binge-watched it all very late at night, after a full working day which started at 6am, then traveling for 2 hours to meet up with family, plus still having a touch of chemo brain 😁 I obviously didn’t give it the full attention it needs and clearly need to watch it again!

I was told it was incredibly depressing.
That's all I know.

I don't think that's fair at all. He isn't a likeable or sympathetic character at all and does nothing to help himself in terms of the stalking. The grooming and rape bit however I did find very disturbing. It is also a true story.

How could you miss this?

I think the fact that the main character has flaws and is therefore real makes it "enjoyable". I say enjoyable because although I enjoyed watching and wanted to know what happened it was obviously very traumatic and you could see why the main character originally felt sorry for the woman who eventually stalked him.

I think it is important to see how much effort ot takes to get stalking taken seriously whether male or female. The fact that he struggled more to articulate it was because he was male the same way it can be hard for male victims of domestic abuse to come forward too because they feel it shouldn't be happening to them and who will believe it.

It's based on his true story with some parts dramatised and the actor playing Donny is the writer to whom it happened. And of course now the 'stalker'seems to have been identified.

I’ve watched about half but am hesitant to watch more as I know the sexual abuse scenes are imminent and I’m not good with them.

I think it’s interesting because it goes against most stalker/victim storylines we usually see of a helpless woman and a sinister man. Donny is a problematic victim, but he’s still a victim.

I’m guessing Gadd wanted to go all out and be authentic but didn’t realise it would blow up like this and now he has to back pedal a bit.

The actors playing Martha and Terri are brilliant. The real stalker (don’t know her name) is being treated like someone’s batty old aunt and wheeled out for entertainment.

If this was a male stalker people would be horrified, not curious.

@Spirallingdownwards please see my following post about binge-watching the lot very late at night after an early start, full day at work, 2 hour journey and whilst still experiencing chemo brain 😁 I’ve said I clearly need to watch again and to pay better attention next time!

It may be a good idea to rematch if you get the chance. I feel its quite integral to the story. Sorry to hear you have been going through so much. Hope you make a full and speedy recovery.